[_PORTEOUS gets up and goes over to LADY KITTY. He puts his hand on her shoulder. They remain thus for a little while._ PORTEOUS. I'm afraid I was very rude to you before dinner, Kitty. LADY KITTY. [_Taking his hand which is on her shoulder._] It doesn't matter. I'm sure I was very exasperating. PORTEOUS. I didn't mean what I said, you know. LADY KITTY. Neither did I. PORTEOUS. Of course I know that I'd never have been Prime Minister. LADY KITTY. How can you talk such nonsense, Hughie? No one would have had a chance if you'd remained in politics. PORTEOUS. I haven't the character. LADY KITTY. You have more character than anyone I've ever met. PORTEOUS. Besides, I don't know that I much wanted to be Prime Minister. LADY KITTY. Oh, but I should have been so proud of you. Of course you'd have been Prime Minister. PORTEOUS. I'd have given you India, you know. I think it would have been a very popular appointment. LADY KITTY. I don't care twopence about India. I'd have been quite content with Western Australia. PORTEOUS. My dear, you don't think I'd have let you bury yourself in Western Australia? LADY KITTY. Or Barbadoes. PORTEOUS. Never. It sounds like a cure for flat feet. I'd have kept you in London. [_He picks up the album and is about to look at the photograph of LADY KITTY. She puts her hand over it._ LADY KITTY. No, don't look. [_He takes her hand away._ PORTEOUS. Don't be so silly. LADY KITTY. Isn't it hateful to grow old? PORTEOUS. You know, you haven't changed much. LADY KITTY. [_Enchanted._] Oh, Hughie, how can you talk such nonsense? PORTEOUS. Of course you're a little more mature, but that's all. A woman's all the better for being rather mature. LADY KITTY. Do you really think that? PORTEOUS. Upon my soul I do. LADY KITTY. You're not saying it just to please me? PORTEOUS. No, no. LADY KITTY. Let me look at the photograph again. [_She takes the album and looks at the photograph complacently._ The fact is, if your bones are good, age doesn't really matter. You'll always be beautiful. PORTEOUS. [_With a little smile, almost as if he were talking to a child._] It was silly of you to cry. LADY KITTY. It hasn't made my eyelashes run, has it? PORTEOUS. Not a bit. LADY KITTY. It's very good stuff I use now. They don't stick together either. PORTEOUS. Look here, Kitty, how much longer do you want to stay here? LADY KITTY. Oh, I'm quite ready to go whenever you like. PORTEOUS. Clive gets on my nerves. I don't like the way he keeps hanging about you. LADY KITTY. [_Surprised, rather amused, and delighted._] Hughie, you don't mean to say you're jealous of poor Clive? PORTEOUS. Of course I'm not jealous of him, but he does look at you in a way that I can't help thinking rather objectionable. LADY KITTY. Hughie, you may throw me downstairs like Amy Robsart; you may drag me about the floor by the hair of my head; I don't care, you're jealous. I shall never grow old.